How To Cut Costs With Hosted Digital Phones

This is the Internet Age. Broadband and high-speed connections in the small to midsize business environment is now the norm as opposed to the exception it was a few years ago. What does that mean for the small and midsize business owner? Huge cost savings for one, in the area of communication. With the many offerings available today, it is not uncommon for businesses to reduce telephone costs by as much as eighty (80) percent. Here’s the rundown.

VoIP is a term that refers to Voice over Internet Protocol. It is a technology that allows phone calls to be made using high-speed Internet connections like cable, T1 or high-end DSL. Other common names for VoIP are IP, digital and Internet phones. The unique thing about digital phone technology is that it works with regular analog phones and this is important because since not everyone may have this technology in place, your calls will still be received whether the party you are calling has VoIP in place or not.

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The “Free Trial” Trap and How To Avoid It

We’ve all been subjected to it: ” Install our software or hardware and use it for 30-60 days and if you do not like it, simply remove it and you will get your money back, no questions asked”. Well, there-in lies the problem – that no questions are being asked.

Have you ever subscribed to a “free” magazine only to spend frustrating months trying to get them to stop billing you for the useless magazine? Think of that situation magnified ten times. Here’s why.

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The Cloud And Your Business: Where is Your Umbrella?

That there is a lot of hype in the technology industry about “the cloud” is pretty obvious these days. You will be hard pressed to  read an article about technology (this one included) without some reference to the beauty, ease and affordability of cloud services.

The argument is that IT infrastructures have become too complex and fragile for the pace and dynamism of modern day business. Champions of everything to the cloud are quick to point out that over 70 percent of current IT investment remains focused on maintenance. Worse yet, it is argued, users are clamoring for faster response times and of course management wants all the good stuff but are unwilling to pay for it. So, cloud computing to the rescue.

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WeR1 v Cyberlynk: Ethics and Danger in the Cloud

A recent lawsuit involving WeR1 World Network and CyberLynk Network brings up the issue of ethics, responsibility and danger in the much hyped “Cloud” storage utility that has been agressively pushed by most of the major vendors in recent times.

The gist of the case is that a disgruntled employee of Cyberlynk managed to log back into the Cyberlynk network after he was fired and proceeded to delete about 304GB of data which happened to include an entire season of the TV show called “Zodiac Island” produced by WeR1 network.

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Can Computers Speak Human? A Look at ARP Conversations

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scene when you send an email, connect to a website or simply plug a new computer into your local network? I took a look recently, and I must say, machine language, basically, is no different from ours at some levels. When we hear the term machine language, we no doubt immediately think of 0s and 1s (zeros and ones) which is true, essentially. So how do computers know where to send information and that laptop you just connected to the network, how did it get its IP address so you can browse the network and surf the net? They do the same thing we do, they ask.

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How to Reset A Windows Server 2008 Domain Password

I recently got a desperate call from a friend I helped to set up a domain running Windows server 2008. Apparently, something happened and nobody could log on to the server. My first thought was password expiration so I told them to just log on as domain admin and reset the passwords of the affected users.

Things got interesting when the next question was, “What is the password?”. Now, this was a year after the initial installation and I did not have the password – as a matter of principle, I encourage clients to change the initial password after an installation is completed so they have the assurance that I will not “sneak in”. They took my advise.

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